Petty in the Studio

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have begun work on their next album. Tracking at Los Angeles' Cello Studios, the band is again working with Rick Rubin, who produced 1999's Echo, 1996's She's the One and Petty's last solo album, 1994's Wildflowers." Many tracks on Echo, which was inspired by the band's twentieth anniversary return to the road, were a return to the Heartbreakers' Seventies raucous rock sound. However, guitarist Mike Campbell says the band has no intention of revisiting its past for nostalgia's sake alone.

"I don't care if it rocks or if it's slow or melancholy as long as it's a quality song," he says. "We've got a handful of really good songs and it's much more focused I think than [Echo] started out.

"We make an effort to not play the same riffs or use the same sounds from song to song," Campbell adds. "I don't know how far out there we'll get, but the effort is to go in and do something we've never done before. And if we can't do that, let's do something we did before that's really good." With only four songs finished thus far, Campbell says he doubts the album will see a release this year.

When asked if bassist Howie Epstein, who was busted in June for possession of heroin and a stolen car, is in on the sessions, Campbell is guarded. "Howie is getting healthy at the moment," he says. "That's about all I'm gonna say."

Those who enjoyed his lead vocals debut on Echo's "I Don't Wanna Fight" will be happy to hear Campbell has a side-project. The guitarist has recruited original Heartbreakers bassist Ron Blair, present Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone and guitarist Jason Sinay of L.A.-based Five Easy Pieces to form the Dirty Knobs.

"It's rougher-edged [than Petty's material]," Campbell says of his Knobs. "It's slightly over-driven, less polished, lots of Sixties influence -- the Kinks, Zeppelin, the Animals. It's something I probably should have done a long time ago, but I didn't 'cause I was wrapped up in the Heartbreakers."

While Campbell says the Dirty Knobs have already committed some material to tape and have more songs at the ready, for the time being they're not shopping for a deal and remain content working things out at occasional clubs gigs in Los Angeles.

"I think it's a little weird for Tom to hear me sing after all these years," Campbell confesses. "He seems to be OK with it, but generally if I bring a song in that I sing on and he likes it, his take on it is, 'Yeah that's really good, but I think I can sing it better.' But he's been pretty cool about [the Dirty Knobs]. We haven't had any major conflicts.

"It's just a lot of fun to be able to go out and play songs, any songs you want," he continues. "With the Heartbreakers there are certain things we have to play, and it gets a bit hard sometimes to play the same songs for twenty years."

While the Heartbreakers' next full-length is still in its infancy, the band can next be heard on Labor of Love -- The Music of Nick Lowe, coming September 25th. The group contributes its version of Lowe's "Cracking Up" to the tribute, which also features Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw and Sleepy LaBeef. The cover was first issued as a B-side to the Heartbreakers' 1985 single, "Make It Better (Forget About Me)."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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